This is a record of my journey as a Muslim. I used to be Catholic and belonged to a missionary organisation. After my conversion, I sat on the board of a Muslim converts' organisation and specialised in da'wah programmes, convert management, interfaith issues and apostasy cases. I am an initiate of a Sufi order. As such, the articles and writings tend to cover these areas.
All the Arabic and graphics could not have been done without the help of my wife, Zafirah.

Sunday, 1 March 2009

Remember Me

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ
ٱلرَّحِيمِ

"You have no idea how hard I have looked for a
gift to bring You.

Nothing seemed right.

What is the point of bringing gold to the gold mine, or
water to the Ocean?

Everything I came up with was like taking spices to the
Orient.

It is no good giving my heart and my soul because You
already have these.

So I have brought you a Mirror.

Look at Yourself and Remember
me."

Mawlana Jalal
ad-Din ar-Rumi (q.s.)

Where will we
find the Divine but where it always was.
And what can we give Him when even our amal is not ours. Even our ‘ibadah is His Gift. We call Him the Master but it is He Who
Awaits us at the sajadah when it is
time for our Rendezvous.

So we remember
this the next time we come to Him, whether in du’a or swalah, that our
Presence is by Invitation, that the Invitation is by Acceptance. He has Accepted us. He has Invited us. He has Cloaked us with His Love and Honoured us
with His Presence. And every word from our
lips is His. If He has Engineered our calling
of Him, how can our du’a be
rejected? So we ask of Him with humility
and gratefulness. Some day, when the
Veils are lifted, we will learn that what we ask was already Granted.

Say: "Call upon Allah, or call upon Rahman: by whatever
name ye call upon Him (it is well): for to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names.
Neither speak thy Prayer aloud, nor
speak it in a low tone, but seek a middle course between." (al-Isra’:110)

Shaykh Ahmad
‘Arif once said that a polished mirror leaves no images lest it become a
portrait. We are images in that
mirror. An image does not see, it does
not speak, it does not hear, it is not alive.
It is nothing but a Reflection of Divine Attributes. Once it believes itself inherent, it ceases
to be a Reflection and has become an image.
The polished mirror of the heart is stained with self. So we must polish that mirror and bring Him
the only Gift of worth, Himself.